According to the BBC, Mark Zuckerberg, the head of the Meta group that owns Facebook and Instagram, visited Donald Trump at his resort in Mar-a-Lago. According to the British media, this is another proof of a visible revival in their once cold relations.
As the BBC notes, the president-elect already has a close relationship with another leading figure in the technology industry, the owner of X (formerly Twitter), Elon Musk.
However, historically speaking, there has been no such closeness between Trump and Zuckerberg. As the BBC reminds, Trump was banned from using Facebook and Instagram after the riot at the Capitol. In addition, the president-elect threatened to imprison the head of Meta if he interfered in the 2024 presidential elections.
Recently, however, there has been evidence of improvement in these tense relations, culminating in Zuckerberg's dinner with the president-elect at his Florida residence.
– Mark was grateful for President Trump's invitation to dinner and the opportunity to meet with members of his team and talk (editor's note) about the future administration – a Meta spokesman told the BBC. “This is an important time for the future of American innovation,” he added in a statement.
Donald Trump and Mark Zuckerberg's relationship
In August, Trump wrote in a book that Zuckerberg would “spend the rest of his life in prison” if he tried to interfere with the election in USA in 2024. According to the BBC, the president-elect later softened his stance, saying in a podcast in October that “it's nice that Zuckerberg is not taking part in the elections” and thanked him for the phone call after the assassination attempt.
Trump was banned from Meta platforms Facebook and Instagram in 2021 for “praising those involved in the violence at the Capitol on January 6.” However, this suspension has now been lifted.
In August this year, Zuckerberg expressed regret for stopping promoting content related to the allegations about his son Joe BidenHunter, which were the topic of right-wing talks in the US before the 2020 presidential elections.
He also said he would no longer make any donations to support election infrastructure after a $400 million 2020 donation was seen by some as a way to circumvent donation limits. Zuckerberg said his donations were nonpartisan and his goal was to remain neutral during the election.
It is unclear what the two men discussed during dinner at Trump's Florida home. The BBC recalls that “however, Meta has faced increasing regulation in recent years, including an ongoing antitrust case brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2020.”
Main photo source: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images